HISTORY - In 1954, Alex Osborn, an advertising executive in Buffalo, New York, created a process, which is now globally known as "Brainstorming". Together with Buffalonians Seymour H. Knox II, Wells Moot, Sr. and Whitworth Fergeson, Sr. he established the not-for-profit Creative Education Foundation (www.cef-cpsi.org), in Buffalo, to further develop Creativity Concepts.

Since that initial insight, educators, students, professional consultants and business executives, many from Fortune 500 Companies from around the world, have journeyed to Buffalo, each and every year, to learn and improve upon the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) Process, at week-long Conferences, known globally as the Creativity Problem Solving Institute (CPSI).

Further, the Buffalo State College also teaches the processes of creativity to hundreds of students each year at its, world renown, International Center for Creative Studies.

As a result of the lobbying efforts of Solutions Partnering.Org, the Buffalo Common Council, on October 30th, 2001, officially recognized and Proclaimed, by Resolution, its global position and accompanying responsibilities, as "The Cradle of Creative Studies" and "The Mecca for Global Creativity."

Further, on May 16th, 2002, Mayor Anthony Masiello signed a Local Law, sponsored by Council President James Pitts, and unanimously passed by the full Common Council, to amend the City Charter and establish THE BUFFALO CREATIVITY AND CIVIC SOLUTIONS COMMISSION.

STRATEGY - The Process which we have named "Solutions Partnering Creativity" (SPC) is a reverse paradigm of "Creative Problem Solving" (CPS). In CPS one identifies a problem, and thru a number of techniques works the processes to a Solution. In SPC, we spend our time identifying unique Solutions and matching them with agencies that have comparable Civic Challenges.

To paraphrase the words of an old 1960's song, SPC "accentuates the positive" and CPS "eliminates the negative."

1st Law - "No complex Problem has a simple solution. It has multiple Solutions, ergo Solutions Partnering."

2nd Law - "For every Problem, there is a Solution. The real challenge is knowing how and/or where to find it."

3rd Law - "One hour in the Library (seeking Solutions) is sometimes equivalent to 100 hours in the Laboratory (developing Solutions)"
 
4th Law - "For every problem, be assured that someone, somewhere, has already found its solution."

ACTIVE PROJECTS:

1. National Promotion of "Creativity Civic Solutions Commissions"
2. National Promotion of Participatory Democracy via the "InterActive Citizen Response" Concept
3. National Promotion of "The 4C Communities" (Conscious, Creative, Colllaborative, Compassionate)
4. National Promotion of the future Service Delivery system for Baby Boomers, "The Home Equity Plan (H.E.L.P.) for Seniors"
5. Buffalo Promotion to Establish a "Creativity Campus" in a portion of the H.H. Richardson Historical Building.

Solutions Partnering.Org is an Affiliate of The Wellness Institute of Greater Buffalo and Western New York, a 501C3 not-for-profit, housed at Room 607, City Hall, Buffalo, N.Y. 14202

Contact Projects Coordinator- Norman Bakos at nbakos@SolutionsPartnering.Org or phone/fax 716-892-1629.